Wireless charging method for urban air mobility and device and system therefor

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates to an in-place alignment method for wireless charging of an urban air mobility and a device and a system therefor. A wireless charging method in an urban air mobility includes acquiring location information of a supply device for supplying wireless power, moving to the supply device based on the location information, performing a horizontal alignment based on a distance to the supply device, performing a longitudinal alignment based on completion of the horizontal alignment, and performing the wireless charging after the urban air mobility stops based on completion of the longitudinal alignment. Therefore, the present disclosure has an advantage of maximizing a wireless charging efficiency and minimizing a power waste by quickly and accurately aligning wireless power transmitting/receiving pads of the urban air mobility and the supply device with each other in place.

Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 119(a), this application claims the benefit ofKorean Patent Application No. 10-2021-0168906, filed on Nov. 30, 2021,which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND Field

The present disclosure relates to a wireless charging technology for anurban air mobility, and more particularly, to a technology for aligninga wireless power transceiver in place for wireless charging of the urbanair mobility.

Discussion of the Related Art

A concept of an urban air mobility (UAM) was first defined by NationalAeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) as “safe and efficient airtraffic operation in a metropolitan region for manned and unmannedaerial vehicle systems”. In recent years, a growing interest in the UAMby governments, businesses, and research institutions has led to rapidproliferation of such new concept.

According to a market report by Global Information, Inc., a market sizeof the urban air mobility (UAM) is projected to grow from $2.6 billionin 2020 to $9.1 billion in 2030, expanding at a compound annual growthrate (CAGR) of 13.5%. Factors such as an efficiency improvement, asafety for people, an increase in an investment demand are expected todrive the market growth.

The UAM is expected to revolutionize conventional modes of transport,including a highway, a railroad, and air and waterways. A 2018 MorganStanley blue paper estimates that a global UAM addressable market willreach $1.5 trillion by 2040.

The UAM concept may be further extended to an application in a ruralregion where conventional ground transportation infrastructures areinsufficient. In particular, in addition to the transport sector, theUAM vehicle is expected to be applied in specific scenarios such astourism, industry, emergency medical services, and fire control.

In the future, a smart UAM vehicle may be equipped with an autonomousdriving function and a remote control function to eliminate a need for apilot on board. This may not only eliminate needs for the pilot on boardand a related cost, but also avoid a risk of a safety accident caused bya human error, and control the vehicle from the ground more easily andsafely.

The UAM vehicle is a flying vehicle that transports passengers or cargoalong a specific point-to-point route within an urban region. Due toconstraints of buildings, factories, road traffic, and urban crowds,unlike aircraft using a conventional runway, an ideal vehicle modelshould be autonomous, compact, efficient, agile, and maneuverable with afunction taking off and landing vertically.

In addition, an electrically-driven UAM vehicle is environmentallyfriendly and has an advantage of no exhaust gas using eco-friendlyenergy such as solar power, electric energy, hydrogen fuel, and the likeinstead of conventional fossil fuel in consideration of an atmosphericenvironmental issue.

The UAM vehicle has an advantage of being faster and more efficient thanconventional ground transportation in that individuals and the cargo maymove from city to city along a straight air route.

A centralized UAM platform provides a convenient network, eliminating aneed for the individuals to own their own UAM vehicle. This may not onlyincrease asset utilization, but also reduce wastage of resources.

In addition, the centralized UAM platform may eliminate a parkingproblem that dominates many portions of city life today, and may realizea true sharing economy compared to a conventional vehicle.

The UAM may provide short-distance (3 km-100 km) air service, and may bedesigned for city dwellers to effectively solve a “last 50 km” problemthat airlines are not able to currently provide.

In order to efficiently operate the electrically-driven UAM vehicle, asafe and efficient charging scheme is required.

In particular, in a case of an unmanned UAM vehicle, a wireless chargingscheme may be applied. In this regard, correct alignment between awireless power receiver mounted in the UAM vehicle and a wireless powertransmitter installed in a charging infrastructure is very important toimprove a wireless charging efficiency.

SUMMARY

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a wireless chargingmethod for an urban air mobility, and a device and a system therefor.

Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a method foraligning a wireless power transceiver for efficient wireless charging ofan urban air mobility, and a device and a system therefor.

Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a method foraligning a wireless power transmitting/receiving pad using varioussensors for efficient wireless charging of an electrically-driven urbanair mobility, and a device and a system therefor.

Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a method foraligning a wireless power transmitting/receiving pad by adaptivelyselecting and driving a sensor based on a state of sensors equipped inan electrically-driven urban air mobility, and a device and a systemtherefor.

Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a method foraligning a wireless power transceiver by associating an urban airmobility with a user device(s), and a device and a system therefor.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the objectsthat could be achieved with the present disclosure are not limited towhat has been particularly described hereinabove and the above and otherobjects that the present disclosure could achieve will be more clearlyunderstood from the following detailed description.

A wireless charging method in an urban air mobility according to oneaspect includes acquiring location information of a supply device forsupplying wireless power, moving the urban air mobility to the supplydevice based on the location information, performing a horizontalalignment based on a distance to the supply device, performing alongitudinal alignment based on completion of the horizontal alignment,and performing the wireless charging after the urban air mobility stopsbased on completion of the longitudinal alignment.

In one implementation, the method may further include analyzing a frontcamera image to sense a front lane of the supply device, and calculatingthe distance to the supply device based on the sensed front lane.

In one implementation, the method may further include analyzing thefront camera image to sense left and right lanes of the supply device,and the horizontal alignment may be performed based on distances to thesensed left and right lanes.

In one implementation, the method may further include analyzing a rearcamera image to sense a rear lane, and the longitudinal alignment may beperformed based on the sensed rear lane.

In one implementation, the method may further include calculating awireless charging efficiency during the wireless charging, andperforming a fine alignment between a wireless power transmitting padmounted on the supply device and a wireless power receiving pad mountedon the urban air mobility based on the calculated wireless chargingefficiency.

In one implementation, the method may further include completing thefine alignment based on the wireless charging efficiency exceeding apredetermined reference value, and performing battery charging based oncompletion of the fine alignment.

In one implementation, low-power may be received from the supply deviceduring the fine alignment and high-power may be received from the supplydevice when the fine alignment is completed. In this regard, thelow-power may correspond to power required to drive the charging devicemounted on the urban air mobility, and the high-power may correspond topower required to charge the battery mounted on the urban air mobility.

In one implementation, the method may further include analyzing a beampattern based on the wireless power received from the supply deviceduring the wireless charging, and the fine alignment may be performedbased on the analyzed beam pattern.

In one implementation, the horizontal alignment may be performed basedon the distance to the supply device becoming equal to or smaller than afirst distance, and the longitudinal alignment may be performed based onthe distance to the supply device equal to or smaller than a seconddistance, and the first distance may be greater than the seconddistance.

In one implementation, the location information of the supply device maybe received from the supply device or an urban air mobility controlcenter for managing the supply device via wireless communication inresponse to a charging request of the urban air mobility, and thelocation information may be GPS coordinate information.

In a non-volatile computer readable storage medium for storing at leastone computer program including an instruction that, when executed by atleast one processor, causes the at least one processor to performwireless charging operations in an urban air mobility in associationwith a supply device via wireless communication according to anotheraspect, the operations include acquiring location information of thesupply device for supplying wireless power, moving the urban airmobility to the supply device based on the location information,performing a horizontal alignment based on a distance to the supplydevice, performing a longitudinal alignment based on completion of thehorizontal alignment, and performing the wireless charging after theurban air mobility stops based on completion of the longitudinalalignment.

An urban air mobility equipped with a wireless charging functionaccording to another aspect includes a sensor, a communication terminalfor performing communication with an external device, an electroniccontrol unit for controlling operation and movement of the urban airmobility, a rechargeable battery, a charging device for converting powerreceived via a wireless power receiving pad to charge the battery, and avehicle control unit for controlling the sensor, the communicationterminal, and the charging device, and the vehicle control unit acquireslocation information of a supply device for supplying wireless power viathe communication terminal, controls the electronic control unit basedon the location information to move the urban air mobility to the supplydevice, sequentially performs a horizontal alignment and a longitudinalalignment based on a distance to the supply device, and controls thecharging device after the urban air mobility stops based on completionof the longitudinal alignment to perform the wireless charging.

In one implementation, the sensor may include a front camera, and thevehicle control unit may analyze an image of the front camera to sense afront lane of the supply device, and calculate the distance to thesupply device based on the sensed front lane.

In one implementation, the vehicle control unit may analyze the image ofthe front camera to sense left and right lanes of the supply device, andperform the horizontal alignment based on distances to the sensed leftand right lanes.

In one implementation, the sensor may include a rear camera, and thevehicle control unit may analyze an image of the rear camera to sense arear lane, and perform the longitudinal alignment based on the sensedrear lane.

In one implementation, the vehicle control unit may calculate a wirelesscharging efficiency during the wireless charging, and perform a finealignment between a wireless power transmitting pad mounted on thesupply device and a wireless power receiving pad mounted on the urbanair mobility based on the calculated wireless charging efficiency.

In one implementation, the vehicle control unit may determine that thefine alignment is completed based on the wireless charging efficiencyexceeding a predetermined reference value, and charging of the batterymay be performed based on completion of the fine alignment.

In one implementation, low-power may be received from the supply deviceduring the fine alignment and high-power may be received from the supplydevice when the fine alignment is completed.

In one implementation, the vehicle control unit may analyze a beampattern based on the wireless power received from the supply deviceduring the wireless charging, and the fine alignment may be performedbased on the analyzed beam pattern.

In one implementation, the vehicle control unit may perform thehorizontal alignment based on the distance to the supply device becomingequal to or smaller than a first distance, and perform the longitudinalalignment based on the distance to the supply device equal to or smallerthan a second distance, and the first distance may be greater than thesecond distance.

In one implementation, the location information of the supply device maybe received from the supply device or an urban air mobility controlcenter for managing the supply device via wireless communication inresponse to a charging request of the urban air mobility, and thelocation information may be GPS coordinate information.

A wireless charging system according to another aspect includes a supplydevice for supplying wireless power, and an urban air mobility forreceiving the wireless power from the supply device and charging abattery included therein, location information of the supply device isacquired via a communication terminal of the urban air mobility, anequipped electronic control unit is controlled based on the locationinformation to move the urban air mobility to the supply device,horizontal alignment and longitudinal alignment are sequentiallyperformed based on a distance to the supply device, and an equippedcharging device receives the wireless power from the supply device tocharge the battery after the urban air mobility stops based oncompletion of the longitudinal alignment.

The above-described aspects of the present disclosure are merely some ofthe preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, and variousembodiments reflecting the technical features of the present disclosuremay be derived and understood by those skilled in the art based on thefollowing detailed description of the disclosure.

The present disclosure has an advantage of providing the wirelesscharging method for the urban air mobility, and the device and thesystem therefor.

In addition, the present disclosure has an advantage of providing themethod for aligning the wireless power transceiver for the efficientwireless charging of the urban air mobility, and the device and thesystem therefor.

In addition, the present disclosure has an advantage of providing themethod for aligning the wireless power transmitting/receiving pad usingthe various sensors mounted in the charging infrastructure and theelectrically-driven urban air mobility, and the device and the systemtherefor.

In addition, the present disclosure has an advantage of providing themethod for aligning the wireless power transmitting/receiving pad byadaptively selecting and driving the sensor based on the state of thesensors equipped in the electrically-driven urban air mobility, and thedevice and the system therefor.

In addition, the present disclosure has an advantage of providing themethod for aligning the wireless power transceiver by associating theurban air mobility with the user device(s), and the device and thesystem therefor.

In addition, various effects that can be directly or indirectlyidentified through this document may be provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the disclosure, provide various embodiments of thepresent disclosure and illustrate principles of the present disclosuretogether with detail explanation.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for illustrating an overall structure of a wirelesspower transmitting system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for illustrating a detailed structure of a wirelesscharging system for an urban air mobility according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing configuration of a relay wireless chargingchain according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for illustrating a method for configuring a wirelesscharging chain between urban air mobilities during flight according toan embodiment.

FIGS. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9A and 9B are flowcharts for illustrating an in-placealignment method for wireless charging of an urban air mobilityaccording to various embodiments.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram for illustrating a configuration of an urbanair mobility according to an embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for illustrating an in-place alignment method forwireless charging of an urban air mobility according to an embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for illustrating an in-place alignment method forwireless charging of an urban air mobility capable of vertical take-offand landing according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, some embodiments of the present disclosure will bedescribed in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Itshould be noted that, in adding reference numerals to the constituentelements in the respective drawings, like reference numerals will beused throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like elements.Further, in the following description of embodiments of the presentdisclosure, a detailed description of known functions and configurationsincorporated herein will be omitted to avoid obscuring the subjectmatter of the embodiments.

In describing the components of the embodiments of the presentdisclosure, various terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), (b), etc.,may be used solely for the purpose of differentiating one component fromanother, but the essence, order or sequence of the components are notlimited to these terms. Unless defined otherwise, all terms, includingtechnical and scientific terms, used in the present disclosure may havethe same meaning as commonly understood by a person having ordinaryskill in the art to which the present disclosure pertains. It will befurther understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, may be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistentwith their meaning in the context of the related art and the presentdisclosure, and may not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formalsense unless expressly so defined herein.

In various embodiments of the present disclosure, “/” and “,” should beinterpreted as “and/or”. For example, “A/B” may mean “A and/or B”.Further, “A, B” may mean “A and/or B”. Further, “A/B/C” may mean “atleast one of A, B and/or C”. Further, “A, B, C” may mean “at least oneof A, B and/or C”.

In various embodiments of the present disclosure, “or” should beinterpreted as “and/or”. For example, “A or B” may include “only A”,“only B”, and/or “both A and B”. In other words, “or” should beinterpreted as “additionally or alternatively”.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described indetail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 12 .

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the overall structure of a wirelesspower transmission system according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 1 , a wireless power transmission system 100 mayinclude a supply device 10 and a charging device 20.

The supply device 10 may convert AC (or DC) electrical energy suppliedfrom a power supply network 30 into AC electrical energy required by thecharging device 20, and then transmit the converted AC electrical energyto the charging device 20 using a predetermined wireless energytransmission method. Here, the wireless energy transmission method mayinclude electromagnetic induction, electromagnetic resonance (ormagnetic resonance), microwaves, and radio frequency (RF) wireless powertransmission. The electromagnetic induction is a method of transferringenergy using an induced electromotive force generated by a magneticinduction of AC power between the primary coil provided in the supplydevice 10 and the secondary coil provided in the charging device 20. Onthe other hand, in the method of electromagnetic resonance, when amagnetic field that vibrates at a specific resonant frequency isgenerated through the primary coil provided in the supply device 10, thecharging device 20 induces a magnetic field in the secondary coil havingthe same resonant frequency to transfer energy. The RF wireless powertransmission is a method of transmitting an RF wireless power signal tothe receiver through beamforming using a phased array antenna system ofthe transmitter. This method may allow remote wireless charging up to aradius of several meters, compared to the conventional electromagneticinduction or electromagnetic resonance.

The supply device 10 and the charging device 20 may be interconnectedthrough short-range wireless communication to exchange various kinds ofinformation for wireless power transmission.

The charging device 20 may rectify the wireless power received from thesupply device 10 and then supply the rectified power to thein-device—that is, on-board—rechargeable energy storage systems (RESS)or high voltage (HV) battery.

The supply device 10 according to the embodiment may be installed in abuilding, a road, a parking lot, a charging hub, or a vertiport, whichis infrastructure for takeoff and landing of urban air mobility locatedon land, in the air, on water or on the roof of a building. When awireless power transmission pad for wireless power transmission ismounted on the charging device 20, the charging device 20 may perform afunction as a supply device. Thereby, wireless charging may be performedbetween the electrically powered devices 20.

For example, when the charging device 20 is equipped with multiplewireless power reception pads, the charging device 20 may receivewireless power from other multiple charging devices 20 equipped with awireless power transmission pad at the same time to charge the battery.

As another example, when the charging device 20 is equipped withmultiple wireless power transmission pads, the charging device 20 maytransmit wireless power to other multiple charging devices 20 equippedwith a wireless power reception pad to charge the multiple chargingdevices 20 at the same time. That is, when the charging device 20 isunable to move to the supply device 10 due to the current battery chargeamount, it may be operatively connected to another nearby chargingdevice 20 to perform charging between the charging devices 20. As anexample, a charging device to supply wireless power and a chargingdevice to receive the wireless power may be dynamically determined basedon the current battery charge amount of the charging device 20.

The charging device 20 according to the embodiment may be mounted onvarious means of transportation. As an example, the charging device 20may be applied to an electric vehicle, an unmanned drone, urban airmobility, multi-modal mobility (or hybrid air mobility) operating onland and in the air or on land and at sea.

In a following embodiment, a description will be made with an example inwhich the charging device 20 is mounted on the urban air mobility.

The charging device 20 according to an embodiment may be mounted at oneside of a lower portion of the urban air mobility, but this is only oneembodiment. Depending on a design of those skilled in the art, thecharging device 20 may be mounted at one side of an upper portion of theurban air mobility, one side of a front portion, one side of a rearportion, and one side of a left/right portion.

The supply device 10 according to the embodiment may be operativelyconnected to other supply devices by a wired or wireless communicationsystem.

The charging device 20 according to an embodiment may be associated withanother charging device 20 via a wireless communication system. To thisend, the charging device 20 may be connected to a communication terminal(not shown) disposed in the urban air mobility via a communicationnetwork inside the urban air mobility to exchange signals andinformation.

For example, the wireless communication system may be a multiple accesssystem that supports communication with multiple users by sharing anavailable system resource (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, etc.).Examples of the multiple access system may include a code divisionmultiple access (CDMA) system, a frequency division multiple access(FDMA) system, a time division multiple access (TDMA) system, anorthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system, a singlecarrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) system, and a multicarrier frequency division multiple access (MC-FDMA) system.

The charging device 20 according to the embodiment may be connected toanother supply device by wireless communication. As an example, thecharging device 20 may be connected to multiple supply devices 10. Inthis case, the charging device 20 may receive wireless power from thesupply devices 10 simultaneously. Based on the wireless chargingefficiency between the charging device 20 and the supply devices 10, thecharging device 20 may dynamically determine at least one supply device10 to receive power.

In the above-described embodiment, it has been described that the supplydevice 10 and the charging device 20 to perform wireless charging aredynamically determined based on the wireless charging efficiency.However, this is merely one embodiment. The supply device 10 and thecharging device 20 to perform wireless charging may be dynamicallydetermined by further considering the type and capability of the supplydevice 10, the type and capability of the charging device 20, and thelike. As an example, the type and capability of the charging device 20may depend on the type of the transportation means on which the chargingdevice 20 is mounted. Accordingly, the type and capability of the supplydevice 10 matching the charging device 20 may depend on the chargingdevice 20.

The charging device 20 according to an embodiment may perform a functionas a wireless power transmitting relay—hereinafter, for convenience ofdescription, referred to as a relay or a relay node—that transmits powerreceived from the supply device 10 to another charging device. In thiscase, the charging device 20 may include both a wireless power receiver(or a wireless power receiving pad) for receiving the wireless power anda wireless power transmitter (a wireless power transmitting pad) fortransmitting the wireless power. In an embodiment, locations where thewireless power receiver and the wireless power transmitter are mountedon one urban air mobility may be different from each other, but this isonly one embodiment. The wireless power receiver and the wireless powertransmitter may be constructed as one module and mounted at a specificlocation. As an example, the wireless power receiving pad for receivingthe power from the supply device 10 may be mounted at one side of thelower portion of the urban air mobility, and the wireless powertransmitting/receiving pad for receiving the wireless power from anotherurban air mobility or transmitting the wireless power to another urbanair mobility may be mounted at one side of the upper portion of theurban air mobility.

Through the above-described embodiments, the urban air mobility equippedwith the charging device 20 according to the present disclosure may notonly receive the wireless power from the supply device 10 to charge abattery thereof, but also transmit and receive the wireless power viacollaboration with another urban air mobility stopped (or in flight).For example, when a battery charged level during the flight is notsufficient to fly to the nearest supply device 10 or when the urban airmobility deviates from a route due to unusual weather or the like, thecorresponding urban air mobility may make a request for emergency aircharging to another nearby urban air mobility (or a central controlcenter).

As an example, when another nearby urban air mobility that has receivedthe request for the emergency air charging is capable of the emergencyair charging based on a battery charged state thereof, another nearbyurban air mobility may move toward the urban air mobility that hasrequested the emergency air charging and supply the wireless power viathe wireless charging during the flight.

As another example, the central control center (or an urban air mobilityoperator (UAM air operator)) who has received the request for theemergency air charging may search for another urban air mobility aroundthe urban air mobility that has requested the emergency air charging,and determine a target to participate in the emergency air chargingbased on the current battery charged state of another searched urban airmobility. When the target to participate in the emergency air chargingis determined, after transmitting a predetermined control signal to thenearby urban air mobility determined as the target to participate in theemergency air charging to guide the nearby urban air mobility to alocation of the urban air mobility that has requested the emergency aircharging, the central control center may control the nearby urban airmobility to perform the wireless charging during the flight.

The charging device 20 controls at least one switch provided in thewireless power transmission pad and the wireless power reception pad toactivate/deactivate (ON/OFF) the operation of the corresponding wirelesspower transmission pad and/or the wireless power reception pad.

In the above embodiment, the description has been made with the examplein which the charging device 20 receives the wireless power from onesupply device 10, but this is only one embodiment. The charging device20 may include a plurality of wireless power receiving pads tosimultaneously receive the wireless power from a plurality of supplydevices 10 to perform fast charging.

In another embodiment, the charging device 20 may further include wiredcharging means as well as wireless charging means. In this case, thefast charging may be performed using at least one of the wirelesscharging means and the wired charging means.

A charging device 20 of a first urban air mobility according to anembodiment may divide the wireless power received from the supply device10 via negotiation with a charging device 20 equipped in a second urbanair mobility and transmit the divided wireless power to the second urbanair mobility. As an example, amounts of power charged by the first urbanair mobility and the second urban air mobility may be dynamicallydetermined based on respective battery charged states of the urban airmobilities. As another example, the amounts of power charged by thefirst urban air mobility and the second urban air mobility may bedynamically determined based on respective flight reservation states aswell as the respective battery charged states of the first urban airmobility and the second urban air mobility. That is, the longer thereserved flight distance corresponding to each urban air mobility, themore power consumption is expected. Therefore, it is necessary tofurther consider a flight plan, a flight distance, and the like forpower distribution.

The charging device 20 according to an embodiment may determine whetherpower relay to another urban air mobility is available based on abattery charged state of a RESS 40 thereof. As an example, when thebattery charged level (or a battery output voltage) of the first urbanair mobility is equal to or higher than a predetermined reference value,the charging device 20 of the first urban air mobility may transmit thepower received from the supply device 10 to the charging device 20 ofthe second urban air mobility. On the other hand, when the batterycharged level (or the battery output voltage) of the first urban airmobility is lower than the predetermined reference value, the chargingdevice 20 of the first urban air mobility may control such that thepower received from the supply device 10 is not relayed to the chargingdevice 20 of the second urban air mobility and used only for chargingthe RESS 40 thereof.

The communication terminal mounted on the urban air mobility may beconnected to the supply device 10, another urban air mobility, thecentral control center, and the like via V2X (Vehicle to Everything)communication supported by 4G LTE/5G NR communication to exchangevarious information.

The urban air mobility may be equipped with a global positioning system(GPS) receiver to receive and decode a GPS satellite signal. The urbanair mobility may obtain current GPS coordinate information from the GPSsatellite signal and provide the GPS satellite signal to the supplydevice 10 and/or another urban air mobility via the communicationterminal. In one example, the communication terminal mounted on theurban air mobility may acquire GPS coordinate information of the supplydevice 10 and/or another urban air mobility.

V2X refers to a communication technology for exchanging information withother vehicles, pedestrians, and infrastructure-built objects throughwired/wireless communication. V2X may be divided into four types:vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) for vehicle-to-vehicle communication;vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) for communication between a vehicle andinfrastructure; vehicle-to-network (V2N) for communication between avehicle and a communication network; and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) forcommunication between a vehicle and a pedestrian. V2X communication maybe provided via a PC5 interface and/or a Uu interface.

Sidelink (SL) is a communication scheme that establishes a directwireless link between UAMs to enable direct exchange of informationbetween the vehicle terminals without intervention of a base station(BS) or infrastructure (for example, RSU). SL is considered as a way toalleviate the burden on the BS according to the rapidly increasingamount of data traffic and to minimize the transmission delay inUAM-to-UAM communication

FIG. 2 is a diagram for illustrating a detailed structure of a wirelesscharging system for an urban air mobility according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 2 , a wireless charging system 200 for the urban airmobility may largely include a supply device 10, a power supply network30, and a first urban air mobility 201.

In the embodiment in FIG. 2 , wireless charging for one urban airmobility 201 is described as an example, but this is only oneembodiment. The number of urban air mobilities 201 that may besimultaneously charged by the supply device 10 may be equal to orgreater than two. The maximum number of urban air mobilities 201 thatmay be simultaneously charged corresponding to one supply device 10 maybe dynamically determined by a maximum supplyable power of the supplydevice 10, required power of the urban air mobility 201 to be charged,and the like.

The supply device 10 may include a wireless power transmitting pad 11, apower conversion system 12, and a control communication device 13, butmay not be limited thereto, and may further include a GPS receiver (notshown), an ultrasonic sensor (not shown), and the like.

The control communication device 13 may control overall operations andinput/output of the supply device 10. In addition, the controlcommunication device 13 may control the power conversion system 12 toconvert power provided from the power supply network 30 to powerrequired for charging the urban air mobility 201. In this regard, an ACpower signal converted by the power conversion system 12 may bewirelessly transmitted via a transmission coil of the wireless powertransmitting pad 11. The wireless power transmitted via the wirelesspower transmitting pad 11 may be transmitted to a wireless powerreceiving pad 213 via an electromagnetic induction phenomenon (or anelectromagnetic resonance phenomenon).

In an embodiment, there may be a plurality of wireless powertransmitting pads 11 equipped in the supply device 10 or one wirelesspower transmitting pad 11 may have a plurality of transmission coils forsimultaneously charging the plurality of urban air mobility 201.

The supply device 10 according to an embodiment may further include theGPS receiver (not shown) and the ultrasonic sensor. The supply device 10may provide GPS coordinate information thereof to the urban air mobility201. In addition, the supply device 10 may receive sensor stateinformation of the urban air mobility 201, and may drive the ultrasonicsensor based on the sensor state information of the urban air mobility201. In this case, the urban air mobility 201 may sense an ultrasonicsignal transmitted by the supply device 10 to identify a location of thesupply device 10, and may move to the identified location and align thewireless power transmitting/receiving pad, and then, perform thewireless charging.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the urban air mobility 201 may include at leastone of a charging device 210, a communication terminal 220, a RESS 230,a sensor 240, and a GPS receiver 250. In this regard, the sensor 240 mayinclude at least one of a camera 241, an ultrasonic sensor 242, a radar243, and a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) 244. For example, thecamera 241 may include at least one of a front camera, a rear camera, aleft/right camera, an upper camera, and a lower camera. For example, thecamera 241 may include at least one of a surround view monitor (SVM)camera, an RGB camera, and an infrared camera.

The charging device 210 may include a control communication device 211,a power converter 212, and a wireless power receiving pad 213.

The control communication device 211 may control input/output andoverall operations of the charging device, and may perform communicationwith external device(s).

The control communication device 211 may communicate with variouselectric control units (ECUs) via an internal communication network ofthe urban air mobility 201. In this regard, the ECU may include asteering system for steering control, a braking system for controllingstopping and parking, a driving system for controlling driving of amotor for the flight, and the like, but the present disclosure may notbe limited thereto. The internal communication network of the urban airmobility 201 may include a controller area network (CAN), a localinterconnect network (LIN), a FlexRay, a media oriented systemstransport (MOST) communication network, and the like, but the presentdisclosure may not be limited thereto.

In addition, the control communication device 211 may exchange variouscontrol signals and state information with the control communicationdevice 13 of the supply device 10 via inband (or out-of-band)communication for receiving the wireless power reception. In thisregard, the inband communication refers to a communication scheme usingthe same frequency band as a frequency band used for transmitting thewireless power. For example, IEEE 802.11p communication, 4G LTEcommunication, 5G NR (New Radio) millimeter wave (mmWave) communication,and the like may be used as the out-of-band communication, but thepresent disclosure may not be limited thereto. Based on a design ofthose skilled in the art, Bluetooth communication, RFID communication,near field communication (NFC), infrared short-range wirelesscommunication (IR-DSRC), optical wireless communication (OWC), and thelike may be applied.

In addition, the control communication device 211 may exchangeinformation with another urban air mobility via the communicationterminal 220.

In addition, the communication terminal (not shown) may be mounted onthe supply device 10 as well. In this case, the control communicationdevice 211 may exchange the various control signals and the stateinformation with the supply device 10 via the communication terminal220.

In addition, the control communication device 211 may exchange thevarious control signals and the state information with a userdevice—including, for example, a smartphone, a smart key, and thelike—via the communication terminal 220. To this end, the communicationterminal 220 may have a Bluetooth communication function forcommunication with the smart phone and a frequency communicationfunction for communication with the smart key. In this regard, thefrequency communication function may include a function of receiving aradio frequency (RF) radio wave of 433.92 MHz frequency from the smartkey and a function of transmitting a low frequency (LF) radio wave of125 kHz frequency to the smart key.

Transmitter state information transmitted from the supply device 10 tothe charging device 210 of the urban air mobility 201 may includetransmitter identification information, information about maximumtransmittable power, information about a supported power category,information about the maximum number of devices that may be chargedsimultaneously, information about a type of supported charging devices,software version information, firmware version information,communication protocol version information, IP address information, MACaddress information, port number information, authentication andsecurity information, and the like.

Receiver state information transmitted from the charging device 210 ofthe urban air mobility 201 to the supply device 10 may include receiveridentification information, information about required power,information about maximum receivable power/voltage/current, informationabout the battery charged state, information about a battery outputvoltage, software version information, firmware version information,communication protocol version information, IP address information, MACKaddress information, port number information, authentication andsecurity information, but the present disclosure may not be limitedthereto. In an embodiment, information about the battery charged stateand information about the battery output voltage between the urban airmobilities 201 may be exchanged via communication between thecommunication terminals thereof.

The control communication device 211 may acquire information about thelocation and capability information of the supply device 10 via thecommunication terminal 220.

In addition, the control communication device 211 may acquireinformation about the location and capability information of anothernearby urban air mobility 201 via the communication terminal 220.

As an example, the capability information exchanged between the urbanair mobilities may include information about whether the correspondingurban air mobility is able to perform the wireless charging andinformation about whether the wireless charging is available between theurban air mobilities, information about a mounting location of thewireless power transmitting/receiving pad mounted on the correspondingurban air mobility, information about the battery charged state,information about whether the corresponding urban air mobility is on amission, and the like, but the present disclosure may not be limitedthereto.

When the wireless power receiving pad 213 of the charging device 210 isaligned with the wireless power transmitting pad 11 thereof, the controlcommunication device 13 of the supply device 10 may control the powerconversion system 12 to convert the power supplied from the power supplynetwork 30 into power required by the urban air mobility 201.Thereafter, the converted power may be transmitted to the wireless powerreceiving pad 213 of the urban air mobility 201 in an electromagneticinduction manner via the wireless power transmitting pad 11.

When the urban air mobility 201 approaches the supply device 10 to bewithin a certain distance in association with the sensor 240, thecontrol communication device 211 may perform fine alignment of thetransmitting/receiving pad in association with the user device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing configuration of a relay wireless chargingchain according to an embodiment.

A method for configuring a relay wireless charging chain according tothe present disclosure may be provided as an alternative to solve aproblem of insufficient infrastructure of the supply device for thewireless charging of the urban air mobility.

Referring to FIG. 3 , urban air mobilities 310 and 320 may includecharging devices 311 and 321 and RESSs 317 and 327, respectively.

The charging devices 311 and 321 may include main receiving pads 314 and324 for receiving the wireless power from the supply device 10, first tosecond transmitting and receiving pads 315, 316, 325, and 326 for thewireless power transmission and reception between the urban airmobilities, control communication devices 312 and 322, and powerconverters 313 and 323 for converting the power in response to controlsignals of the control communication devices 312 and 322, respectively.

For convenience of description below, a charging device mounted on thefirst urban air mobility 310 will be referred to as the first chargingdevice 311, and a charging device mounted on the second urban airmobility 320 will be referred to as the second charging device 321.

Referring to FIG. 3 , when sensing the main transmitting pad 11 of thesupply device 10, the first urban air mobility 310 may align the maintransmitting pad 11 and the main receiving pad 314 with each other. Whenthe alignment of the main transmitting/receiving pads is completed, thecontrol communication device 13 of the supply device 10 may determine anamount of power (or an intensity of the transmitted power) via powernegotiation with the control communication device 312 of the first urbanair mobility 310, and control the power conversion system 12 based onthe determined amount of power (or the intensity of the transmittedpower) to transmit the wireless power via the main transmitting pad 11.

The power converter 313 of the first charging device 311 may rectify theAC power received via the main receiving pad 314 and convert the ACpower into DC power required by the battery to charge the RESS 317.

When the second urban air mobility 320 approaches a rear portion of thefirst urban air mobility being charged, the second urban air mobility320 may align the second transmitting/receiving pad 316 of the firsturban air mobility 310 with the first transmitting/receiving pad 325thereof using various sensors mounted therein.

When the transmitting/receiving pads of the first urban air mobility 310and the second urban air mobility 320 are aligned with each other, thesecond charging device 321 of the second urban air mobility 320 mayreceive the wireless power via the power transmission negotiation aftercommunication connection with the first charging device 311 of the firsturban air mobility 310.

When succeeding in the power transmission negotiation with the controlcommunication device 322 of the second charging device 312, the controlcommunication device 312 of the first charging device 311 may distributethe power received via the main receiving pad 314 to the RESS 317 andthe second transmission/reception pad 316 based on a result of the powertransmission negotiation.

The control communication device 312 of the first charging device 311may distribute the wireless power received from the supply device 10 tothe RESS 317 and the second transmission/reception pad 316 based on abattery charged state (or a battery output voltage) corresponding to theRESS 317 thereof, a flight plan/distance of the first urban air mobility310, and the like.

In one example, the control communication device 312 of the firstcharging device 311 may block or temporarily stop the relay wirelesspower supply to the second urban air mobility 320 based on the batterycharged state (or the battery output voltage) corresponding to the RESS317 thereof, the flight plan/distance of the first urban air mobility310, and the like.

After configuring the wireless power transmission chain with the secondurban air mobility 320, the first urban air mobility 310 may provideinformation about the amount of wireless power provided to the secondurban air mobility 320 to the supply device 10 (or a separate billingserver). In this regard, the information provided to the supply device10 may be used for billing for power consumption of the first urban airmobility 310 and the second urban air mobility 320.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for illustrating a method for configuring a wirelesscharging chain between urban air mobilities during flight according toan embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 4 , urban air mobilities 410, 420, and 430 may includecharging devices 411, 421, and 431 and RESSs 416, 426, and 436,respectively.

The charging devices 411, 421, and 431 may includetransmitting/receiving pads 414/415,424/425, and 434/435 fortransmission and reception of the wireless power between the chargingdevices, control communication devices 412, 422, and 432, and powerconverters 413, 423, and 433 that convert the AC wireless power receivedfrom another charging device into DC power required by a RESS thereof inresponse to control signals of the control communication devices 412,422, and 432 to charge the corresponding RESS or convert the powercharged in the corresponding RESS into the AC power and transmit the ACpower to the corresponding the transmission/reception pad thereof,respectively.

For convenience of description below, a charging device mounted on thefirst urban air mobility 410 will be referred to as the first chargingdevice 411, a charging device mounted on the second urban air mobility420 will be referred to as the second charging device 421, and acharging device mounted on the third urban air mobility 430 will bereferred to as the second charging device 431.

In order to increase a power transmission/reception efficiency of thewireless charging chain configured between the urban air mobilities,transmission/reception pads of the urban air mobilities should bealigned with each other to be within a certain distance.

As shown in FIG. 4 , when it is determined during the flight that flightto a destination is impossible with the current battery charged level,the second urban air mobility 420 may transmit a predetermined rescuerequest signal to a nearby urban air mobility via an equippedcommunication terminal (not shown).

The nearby urban air mobility that has received the rescue requestsignal may determine whether the wireless power supply is available inconsideration of a battery charged state thereof and a remainingdistance to the destination. The first urban air mobility 410 and thethird urban air mobility 430 determined to be capable of supplying thewireless power may fly to a location of the second urban air mobility420 as shown in a reference numeral 440 and align atransmitting/receiving pad thereof with a transmitting/receiving pad ofthe second urban air mobility 420 to configure the wireless chargingchain between the urban air mobilities.

Thereafter, the second urban air mobility 420 may receive the wirelesspower from the first urban air mobility 410 and the third urban airmobility 430 to charge a RESS 426 thereof.

Through the embodiment of FIG. 4 described above, the urban air mobilityaccording to the present disclosure may perform the wireless charging inassociation with the nearby urban air mobility even during the flight.Therefore, there is an advantage in that the wireless power may bequickly and effectively supplied to the corresponding urban air mobilityeven in a case of flight route deviation and/or remaining batteryinsufficiency caused by abnormal weather, device failure, flight planchange, and the like.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for illustrating an in-place alignment method forwireless charging of an urban air mobility according to an embodiment.

The urban air mobility may calculate a distance between the urban airmobility and the supply device based on location information of thesupply device and information about a current location thereof. As anexample, the location information of the supply device may be GPS-basedlocation information, but this is only one embodiment. The location ofthe supply device may be obtained using at least one of the ultrasonicsensor, the camera, the LiDAR, and the radar.

The urban air mobility may be controlled such that the distance to thesupply device becomes equal to or smaller than a first distance based onthe location information of the supply device (S510). As an example, theurban air mobility may calculate a distance to a front lane of thesupply device recognized via front camera image analysis. For example,the front lane recognition may be performed when the distance betweenthe supply device and the urban air mobility is equal to or smaller than3 m.

When the distance between the urban air mobility and the supply deviceis equal to or smaller than the first distance, the urban air mobilitymay be horizontally aligned with the supply device based on left/rightlane information of the supply device recognized via the front cameraimage analysis (S520). As an example, the urban air mobility may performhorizontal alignment by identifying an average distance between the leftlane and the right lane. That is, the urban air mobility may perform thehorizontal alignment to a center between the left and right lanes. Forexample, the first distance may be set to one value in a range from 1 mto 3 m.

The urban air mobility may recognize a rear lane of the supply devicevia rear camera image analysis based on the distance between the supplydevice—that is, the front lane of the supply device—and the urban airmobility becomes equal to or smaller than a second distance (S530). Forexample, the second distance may be set to one value in a range from 0cm to 100 cm.

The urban air mobility may longitudinally align the supply device withthe urban air mobility based on the recognized rear lane (S540).

The urban air mobility may establish a wireless communication link (orchannel) with the supply device after stopping based on completion ofthe longitudinal alignment (S550). For example, the wirelesscommunication link (or channel) may be established via Wi-Ficommunication, Bluetooth communication, NFC communication, RFIDcommunication, and the like, but the present disclosure may not belimited thereto, and may be set established via V2X communication usinga commercial mobile communication network or via the inbandcommunication.

The urban air mobility may initiate the wireless charging by performingthe power negotiation with the supply device via the establishedwireless communication link (or channel) (S560).

As an example, information related to the urban air mobility used forthe power negotiation may include at least one of information about atype of the urban air mobility, information about amanufacturer/specification and a mounting location of the chargingdevice, information about a version of software/firmware installed inthe charging device, information about a supported communication scheme,information about a required power/required amount of power, informationabout a battery capacity, information about a remaining battery,information about the battery output voltage, information about aminimum required charging efficiency, information about an availablecharging time (determined based on the flight plan), information aboutan intensity of maximum receivable power, information about the flightplan, and corridor setting information.

As an example, information related to the supply device used for thepower negotiation may include at least one of information about a typeof the supply device, information about a manufacturer and aspecification of the supply device, information about a version ofsoftware/firmware installed in the supply device, information about asupported communication scheme, information about a supported powercategory, information about a supported urban air mobility type,information about an available amount of power, and information about achargeable time. In this regard, the power category may be defined basedon the intensity of the transmitted power and the wireless chargingscheme.

The urban air mobility may measure the wireless charging efficiencybased on the transmitted power of the supply device and the receivedpower actually received via the charging device during the wirelesscharging.

The urban air mobility may determine whether the fine alignment betweenthe wireless power receiving pad (coil) of the urban air mobility andthe wireless power transmitting pad (coil) of the supply device isrequired based on the measured wireless charging efficiency, and performthe fine adjustment based on the determination result (S570). As anexample, units of the fine adjustment may be set tofront/rear/left/right/top/bottom 1 cm, but this is only one embodiment.The units of the fine adjustment may be set to a value smaller or largerthan that based on a design of those skilled in the art.

As an embodiment, the charging device of the urban air mobility mayanalyze a beam pattern of an electromagnetic wave output from the supplydevice and determine a fine adjustment direction based on the analyzedbeam pattern.

The fine adjustment according to an embodiment may be repeatedlyperformed until the wireless charging efficiency reaches a referencevalue. As an example, the wireless charging efficiency reference valuemay be set to 90%, but this is only one embodiment. The wirelesscharging efficiency reference value may be set to a value smaller orlarger than that based on the design of those skilled in the art orbased on requirements of the urban air mobility.

As an example, the fine alignment between the wireless power receivingpad (coil) of the urban air mobility and the wireless power transmittingpad (coil) of the supply device may be performed by adjusting a verticalseparated distance between the wireless power receiving pad (coil)and/or the wireless power transmitting pad—that is, a z-axis location(coordinate)—, but this is only one embodiment. Another embodiment maybe made by adjusting a three-dimensional separated distance between thewireless power receiving pad (coil) and/or the wireless powertransmitting pad—that is, x/y/z-axis locations (coordinates).

To this end, the supply device and/or the charging device of the urbanair mobility according to an embodiment may further include a drivingdevice including a driving motor and a driving shaft capable ofcontrolling vertical and/or horizontal locations of the wireless powertransmitting pad and/or the wireless power receiving pad.

In one example, the fine alignment according to another embodiment maybe made by a driver directly moving the urban air mobility based onguide information provided via an user interface screen of the urban airmobility, but this is only one embodiment. The fine alignment accordingto another embodiment may be made by remotely controlling the urban airmobility with the smart key based on the guide information provided viathe screen on the user device—for example, the smartphone—in associationwith the urban air mobility.

In an embodiment, the camera mounted on the urban air mobility may be asurround view monitor (SVM) camera.

An image filmed by the SVM camera may be input to a deep learning-basedsemantic segmentation network mounted on the urban air mobility, and thedeep learning-based semantic segmentation network may output a laneclassification image related to lanes arranged around the supply devicevia learning. For example, the classified lanes may include the frontlane, the left lane, the right lane, and the rear lane.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for illustrating an in-place alignment method forwireless charging of an urban air mobility according to anotherembodiment.

Referring to FIG. 6 , the urban air mobility may be controlled such thatthe distance to the supply device becomes equal to or smaller than thefirst distance based on the location information of the supply device(S610).

The urban air mobility may be paired with the user device and the smartkey after stopping based on the distance to the supply device becomingequal to or smaller than the first distance (S620).

The urban air mobility may perform primary alignment of the wirelesspower transmitting/receiving pads by moving the urban air mobility tothe supply device in response to a control signal received from thepaired smart key (S630).

As an example, the urban air mobility may determine that the primaryalignment is completed based on the supply device recognizing thecharging device mounted on the urban air mobility.

As another example, when sensing, by the charging device, apredetermined wireless power signal—for example, an analog ping signal,a digital ping signal, a short beacon signal, a long beacon signal, andthe like—transmitted by the supply device, the urban air mobility maydetermine that the primary alignment is completed.

As another example, the urban air mobility may identify the location ofthe wireless power transmitting pad of the supply device by analyzingthe image filmed by the camera, and determine that the primary alignmentis completed based on the identified location of the wireless powertransmitting pad matching the location of the wireless power receivingpad disposed in the charging device.

The urban air mobility may stop after completing the primary alignment,establish the wireless communication link with the supply device, andthen initiate low-power charging (S640). In this regard, the low-powercharging may mean that the supply device transmits the wireless powerwith power equal to or less than the power required to charge thebattery of the urban air mobility. For example, during the low-powercharging, the supply device may supply only power necessary for theoperation of the charging device.

The urban air mobility may perform the wireless charging efficiencycalculation and the beam pattern analysis based on the wireless powerreceived from the supply device (S650).

The urban air mobility may transmit information about the calculatedwireless charging efficiency and the analyzed beam pattern to the paireduser device (S660). In this regard, the urban air mobility and the userdevice may exchange the information with each other via the V2Xcommunication, but this is only one embodiment. In another embodiment,the information may be exchanged via the Bluetooth communication, theWi-Fi communication, and the like.

The urban air mobility may perform secondary alignment for the wirelesspower transmitting/receiving pads based on the control signal receivedfrom the paired smart key (S670). As an example, the user may determinea moving direction of the urban air mobility based on the informationabout the wireless charging efficiency and the beam pattern analysisdisplayed on the user device, and control the secondary alignment forthe wireless power transmitting/receiving pads by selecting a travelcontrol button of the smart key based on the determined movingdirection.

The urban air mobility may compare the wireless charging efficiencycalculated based on the secondary alignment with the predeterminedreference value (S680).

When the wireless charging efficiency exceeds the predeterminedreference value as a result of comparison, the urban air mobility maydetermine that the secondary alignment has been successfully completedand initiate high-power charging (S690). In this regard, during thehigh-power charging, the urban air mobility may receive power enough tocharge the battery.

When the wireless charging efficiency is equal to or lower than apredetermined reference value as a result of the comparison in operation680, the urban air mobility may re-perform the secondary alignmentprocess by entering operation 650 described above.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for illustrating an in-place alignment method forwireless charging of an urban air mobility according to anotherembodiment.

Referring to FIG. 7 , the urban air mobility may measure the location ofthe urban air mobility based on a global navigation satellite system(GNSS) signal received via the equipped GPS receiver (S710). Forexample, the urban air mobility may acquire location information withhigher precision of a cm level by correcting the location information ofinformation received from a separate fixed reference station in additionto the GPS receiver using a differential global positioning system(DGPS) or a real time kinematic (RTK) technology that fuses with the GPSreception information. In addition, the urban air mobility may acquirethe location information with the higher precision by mitigating errorsoccurred in a differential global positioning system (DGPS) or a realtime kinematic (RTK) technology in a manner of software way or by fusionof sensing information of an inertial navigation sensor such as anodometer, an accelerometer, and a gyroscope. As another example, theurban air mobility may improve positioning accuracy by correcting theGNSS reception information in a map matching scheme of mapping a roadand a landmark detected with the camera image and the LiDAR sensor tolocations on a map using a precise electronic map such as a localdynamic map (LDM) that provides dynamic map information.

The urban air mobility may acquire the location information of thesupply device via the wireless communication with the supply device(S720). In this regard, the location information of the supply devicemay be location information corresponding to the wireless powertransmitting pad equipped in the supply device, and may be pre-measuredwith high precision and maintained in the internal memory of the supplydevice.

The urban air mobility may autonomously drive based on the measuredlocation information thereof and the location information of the supplydevice to move to the supply device and then stop (S730).

The urban air mobility may perform the primary alignment of the wirelesspower transmitting/receiving pads after stopping (S740).

As an example, the urban air mobility may determine that the primaryalignment is completed based on the supply device recognizing thecharging device mounted on the urban air mobility.

As another example, when the predetermined wireless power signal—forexample, the analog ping signal, the digital ping signal, the shortbeacon signal, the long beacon signal, and the like—transmitted by thesupply device is sensed by the charging device, the urban air mobilitymay determine that the primary alignment is completed.

As another example, the urban air mobility may identify the location ofthe wireless power transmitting pad of the supply device by analyzingthe image filmed by the camera, and determine that the primary alignmentis completed based on the identified location of the wireless powertransmitting pad matching the location of the wireless power receivingpad equipped in the charging device.

The urban air mobility may initiate the low-power charging afterestablishing the wireless communication link with the supply deviceafter completing the primary alignment (S750). In this regard, thelow-power charging may mean that the supply device transmits thewireless power with the power equal to or less than the power requiredto charge the battery of the urban air mobility. For example, during thelow-power charging, the supply device may supply only the powernecessary for the operation of the charging device.

The urban air mobility may perform the wireless charging efficiencycalculation and the beam pattern analysis based on the wireless powerreceived from the supply device (S760).

The urban air mobility may perform the secondary alignment of thewireless power transmitting/receiving pads based on the calculatedwireless charging efficiency and the analyzed beam pattern (S770).

The urban air mobility may compare the wireless charging efficiencycalculated based on the secondary alignment with the predeterminedreference value (S780).

When the wireless charging efficiency exceeds the predeterminedreference value as the result of the comparison, the urban air mobilitymay determine that the secondary alignment has been successfullycompleted and initiate the high-power charging (S790). In this regard,during the high-power charging, the urban air mobility may receive thepower enough to charge the battery.

When the wireless charging efficiency is equal to or lower than thepredetermined reference value as the result of the comparison inoperation 780, the urban air mobility may re-perform the secondaryalignment process by entering operation 760 described above.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for illustrating an in-place alignment method forwireless charging of an urban air mobility according to anotherembodiment.

Referring to FIG. 8 , the urban air mobility may measure the location ofthe urban air mobility based on the global navigation satellite system(GNSS) signal received via the equipped GPS receiver (S810). Forexample, the urban air mobility may acquire the location informationwith the higher precision of the cm level by correcting the locationinformation—that is, GSP (X,Y) coordinate information—of informationreceived from the separate fixed reference station in addition to theGPS receiver using the differential global positioning system (DGPS) orthe real time kinematic (RTK) technology that fuses with the GPSreception information. In addition, the urban air mobility may acquirethe location information with the higher precision by mitigating theerrors occurred in the differential global positioning system (DGPS) orthe real time kinematic (RTK) technology in the manner of software wayor by fusion of the sensing information of the inertial navigationsensor such as the odometer, the accelerometer, and the gyroscope. Asanother example, the urban air mobility may improve the positioningaccuracy by correcting the GNSS reception information in the mapmatching scheme of mapping the road and the landmark detected with thecamera image and the LiDAR sensor to the locations on the map using theprecise electronic map such as the local dynamic map (LDM) that providesthe dynamic map information.

The urban air mobility may acquire the location information of thesupply device via the wireless communication with the supply device(S820). In this regard, the location information of the supply devicemay be the location information corresponding to the wireless powertransmitting pad equipped in the supply device, and may be pre-measuredwith the high precision and maintained in the internal memory of thesupply device.

The urban air mobility may be paired with the user device and the smartkey by autonomously driving based on the measured location informationthereof and the location information of the supply device to move to thesupply device and then stopping (S830).

The urban air mobility may perform the primary alignment of the wirelesspower transmitting/receiving pads after stopping (S840).

As an example, the urban air mobility may determine that the primaryalignment is completed based on the supply device recognizing thecharging device mounted on the urban air mobility.

As another example, when the predetermined wireless power signal—forexample, the analog ping signal, the digital ping signal, the shortbeacon signal, the long beacon signal, and the like—transmitted by thesupply device is sensed by the charging device, the urban air mobilitymay determine that the primary alignment is completed.

As another example, the urban air mobility may identify the location ofthe wireless power transmitting pad of the supply device by analyzingthe image filmed by the camera, and determine that the primary alignmentis completed based on the identified location of the wireless powertransmitting pad matching the location of the wireless power receivingpad equipped in the charging device.

The urban air mobility may initiate the low-power charging afterestablishing the wireless communication link with the supply deviceafter completing the primary alignment (S850). In this regard, thelow-power charging may mean that the supply device transmits thewireless power with the power equal to or less than the power requiredto charge the battery of the urban air mobility. For example, during thelow-power charging, the supply device may supply only the powernecessary for the operation of the charging device.

The urban air mobility may perform the wireless charging efficiencycalculation and the beam pattern analysis based on the wireless powerreceived from the supply device (S860).

The urban air mobility may transmit the information about the calculatedwireless charging efficiency and the analyzed beam pattern to the paireduser device (S870). In this regard, the urban air mobility and the userdevice may exchange the information with each other via the V2Xcommunication, but this is only one embodiment. In another embodiment,the information may be exchanged via the Bluetooth communication, theWi-Fi communication, and the like.

The urban air mobility may perform the secondary alignment for thewireless power transmitting/receiving pads based on the control signalreceived from the paired smart key (S880). As an example, the user maydetermine an optimal moving direction of the urban air mobility based onthe information about the wireless charging efficiency and the beampattern analysis displayed on the user device, and control the secondaryalignment for the wireless power transmitting/receiving pads byselecting the travel control button of the smart key based on thedetermined optimal moving direction. In this regard, a unit of themovement in the secondary alignment may be set to 1 cm, but this is onlyone embodiment. The unit of the movement may be adaptively set based ona design of those skilled in the art and a required wireless chargingefficiency.

The urban air mobility may compare the wireless charging efficiencycalculated based on the secondary alignment with the predeterminedreference value (S890).

When the wireless charging efficiency exceeds the predeterminedreference value as the result of comparison, the urban air mobility maydetermine that the secondary alignment has been successfully completedand initiate the high-power charging (S8950). In this regard, during thehigh-power charging, the urban air mobility may receive the power enoughto charge the battery.

When the wireless charging efficiency is equal to or lower than thepredetermined reference value as the result of the comparison inoperation 890, the urban air mobility may re-perform the secondaryalignment process by entering operation 860 described above.

FIG. 9A is a flowchart for illustrating an in-place alignment method forwireless charging of an urban air mobility according to anotherembodiment.

Referring to FIG. 9A, the urban air mobility may acquire the locationinformation of the supply device (S911). In this regard, the locationinformation of the supply device may be received from the supply deviceor an urban air mobility control center that manages the supply devicevia the wireless communication in response to the charging request ofthe urban air mobility. As an example, the location information may bethe GPS coordinate information.

The urban air mobility may move to the supply device based on theacquired location information (S921). As an example, the urban airmobility may move to the supply device via the autonomous driving, butthis is only one embodiment. The urban air mobility may move to thesupply device via driver control or in association with the externaluser device.

The urban air mobility may sense the sensor signal of the supply devicebased on the distance to the supply device becoming equal to or smallerthan the first distance (S931). In this regard, the sensor signal may bethe signal output from the ultrasonic sensor equipped in the supplydevice, and the urban air mobility may sense the ultrasonic signal ofthe supply device using the equipped ultrasonic sensor. As an example,the first distance may be determined based on precision of the GPScoordinates.

The urban air mobility may perform the wireless charging with firstpower after moving to the supply device based on the sensed sensorsignal and then stopping (a first charging operation) (S941). In thisregard, in the first charging operation, the actual battery charging maynot be performed. As an example, the first power may be set to the powerrequired for the operation of the charging device equipped in the urbanair mobility.

The urban air mobility may calculate and/or analyze the wirelesscharging efficiency and/or the beam pattern during the first charging(S951).

The urban air mobility may perform the fine alignment based on thecalculated wireless charging efficiency and/or beam pattern (S961). Inthis regard, the fine alignment may mean the operation of adjusting thedistance between the wireless power transmitting pad mounted on thesupply device and the wireless power receiving pad mounted on the urbanair mobility in the predetermined units of cm. The fine alignmentaccording to an embodiment may be performed via the autonomous drivingof the urban air mobility, but this is only one embodiment. As in theabove-described embodiments, the fine alignment may be performed inassociation with the external user device—for example, the user device(the smartphone) and the smart key—.

The urban air mobility may compare the wireless charging efficiency withthe predetermined reference value (S971).

The urban air mobility may perform the wireless charging with secondpower based on the wireless charging efficiency exceeding thepredetermined reference value (a second charging operation) (S981). Inthe second charging operation, the urban air mobility may charge theequipped battery using the second power received from the supply device.

When the wireless charging efficiency is equal to or lower than thepredetermined reference value as a result of the comparison in operation971, the urban air mobility may re-perform the fine alignment byentering operation 951 described above.

The first to second powers are the wireless AC power transmitted by thesupply device in the electromagnetic induction scheme or theelectromagnetic resonance scheme, and the second power may be set to begreater than the first power.

The present disclosure has an advantage of effectively blockingunnecessary power waste by performing the low-power charging until themicro-alignment is completed.

In the embodiment of FIG. 9A described above, the urban air mobility maysense the left/right lanes of the supply device by analyzing the imageof the equipped front camera while moving to the supply device based onthe sensed sensor signal, and further perform the horizontal alignmentbased on the sensed distances to the left/right lanes. In addition, theurban air mobility may sense the rear lane of the supply device byanalyzing the image of the equipped rear camera after stopping, andfurther perform the longitudinal alignment based on the sensed rearlane.

FIG. 9B is a flowchart for illustrating an in-place alignment method forwireless charging of an urban air mobility according to anotherembodiment.

Referring to FIG. 9B, the urban air mobility may determine whether theGPS receiver is broken and/or whether a region is a GPS shadow region(S910). In this regard, the GPS shadow region may include a region wherea GPS signal reception level is equal to or lower than a referencevalue, the location measurement is not possible, or positioning accuracyis equal to or lower than a reference value.

When the GPS receiver is broken and/or the region is the GPS shadowregion as a result of the determination, the urban air mobility maydetermine whether the camera is broken and/or the camera is not able tobe used (S920). In this regard, the condition in which the camera cannotbe is not able to be used may include a condition in which specificobjects such as an obstacle, a landmark, and a lane are not able to beclassified via the camera image analysis due to a bad weather conditionor a night condition.

When the camera is broken and/or the camera is not able to be used as aresult of the determination, the urban air mobility may request thesupply device to drive the ultrasonic sensor (S930). In this regard, thesupply device may transmit the ultrasonic signal by driving theultrasonic sensor in response to the ultrasonic sensor driving request.

The urban air mobility may measure the location of the supply devicebased on the sensed ultrasonic signal (S940).

The urban air mobility may be stopped after moving to the supply deviceby performing the autonomous driving based on the measured locationinformation of the supply device (S950).

Thereafter, the urban air mobility may perform operations 740 to 790 inFIG. 7 described above, or perform operations 840 to 895 in FIG. 8 afterpairing with the user device and the smart key.

When the GPS receiver is not broken and/or the region is not the GPSshadow region as the result of the determination in operation 910, theurban air mobility may perform the embodiment in FIG. 7 or FIG. 8described above.

When the camera is not broken and/or the camera is able to be used as aresult of the determination in operation 920, the urban air mobility mayperform the embodiment in FIG. 6 described above.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram for illustrating a configuration of an urbanair mobility according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 10 , an urban air mobility 1000 may include at leastone of a vehicle control unit (VCU) 1010, a sensor 1020, a GPS receiver1030, a battery 920, a communication terminal 1040, an output device1050, an electric control unit (ECU) 1060, a memory 1070, a chargingdevice 1080, and a battery 1090. The vehicle control unit (VCU) 1010 andthe electric control unit (ECU) 1060 of the apparatus according to anexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure may be a processor (e.g.,computer, microprocessor, CPU, ASIC, circuitry, logic circuits, etc.).Each control unit 1010, 1060 may be implemented by a non-transitorymemory storing, e.g., a program(s), software instructions reproducingalgorithms, etc., which, when executed, performs various functionsdescribed hereinafter, and a processor configured to execute theprogram(s), software instructions reproducing algorithms, etc. Herein,the memory and the processor may be implemented as separatesemiconductor circuits. Alternatively, the memory and the processor maybe implemented as a single integrated semiconductor circuit. Theprocessor may embody one or more processor(s).

The VCU 1010 may control overall operations and input/output of theurban air mobility 1000. The VCU 1010 may monitor a real-time operatingstate of the urban air mobility 1000, and exchange state informationwith an external UAM control center, a vertiport, and the like.

The sensor 1020 may include a camera 1021, an ultrasonic sensor 1022,and the like, but the present disclosure may not be limited thereto. Thesensor 1020 may further include at least one of a smart parkingassistance system (SPAS) sensor, a LiDAR, a radar, and an inertialmeasurement sensor. The camera 1021 according to an embodiment mayinclude an SVM camera. In this regard, the SVM camera may include atleast one of a front camera, a left/right camera, a rear camera, and alower camera.

The VCU 1010 may collect various sensing information and the stateinformation from a sub-module via the UAM internal communicationnetwork. When specific control is required based on the sensinginformation and the state information, a control command may betransmitted to the corresponding sub-module. In this regard, thesub-module may include the sensor 1020, the communication terminal 1040,the output device 1050, the ECU 1060, the charging device 1080, and thelike, but the present disclosure may not be limited thereto.

In this regard, the UAM internal communication network may include acontroller area network (CAN), a local interconnect network (LIN), aFlexRay, and a media oriented systems transport (MOST) communicationnetwork, but the present disclosure may not be limited thereto.

The VCU 1010 may communicate with the external device—for example, atleast one of a user device 1091, a smart key 1092, a UAM control center1093, and a supply device 10 via the communication terminal 1040.

The communication terminal 1040 may have a first communication modulefor connection to a 4G/5G commercial mobile communication network, asecond communication module for short-range wireless communication, athird communication module for connection to an aviation voicecommunication network, a fourth communication module for RFcommunication, and the like. For example, the communication terminal1040 may communicate with the user device 1091, the UAM control center1093, the communication terminal of another urban air mobility, thesupply device 10, and the like using at least one of the first to thirdcommunication modules. The communication terminal 1040 may receive a RFcontrol signal received from the smart key 1092 for the fine alignmentvia the fourth communication module, and the received RF control signalmay be transmitted to the VCU 1010.

The output device 1050 may include a display, a speaker, a vibrationmodule, and the like.

The ECU 1060 may include a steering system, a driving system, a brakingsystem, a vertical taking-off and landing system, a navigation controlsystem, a battery management system, and the like, but the presentdisclosure may not be limited thereto. In this regard, the drivingsystem may be composed of a travel driving system that drives a motorfor land travel and a flight driving system that drives a motor foraerial flight.

The charging device 1080 may receive the wireless power from the supplydevice 1400 to charge the battery 1090. In addition, the charging device1080 may receive or transmit the wireless power in association with thecharging device mounted on another urban air mobility. Detailedconfigurations and operations of the charging device 1080 and the supplydevice 10 will be replaced with the above description.

The memory 1070 may maintain various software/firmware and variousparameter setting information necessary for the operation of the urbanair mobility 1000. In particular, various software engines for machinelearning may be loaded in the memory 1070.

In addition, operations performed in the urban air mobility in theabove-described embodiments may be performed under control of the VCU1010, and the detailed operation of the VCU 1010 will be replaced withthe description of FIGS. 5 to 9 described above.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for illustrating an in-place alignment method forwireless charging of an urban air mobility according to an embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 11 , the urban air mobility may acquire laneinformation of a charging station by analyzing the front camera image.In this regard, the lane information may include front lane information,right lane information, and left lane information.

The urban air mobility may calculate the distance to the supply devicebased on the acquired lane information.

The urban air mobility may move to the supply device based on thecalculated distance to the supply device after performing the horizontalalignment control based on the left/right lane information.

When the movement to the supply device is completed, the urban airmobility may analyze the wireless front and rear camera images afterstopping to sense the location of the rear lane, and perform thelongitudinal alignment control based on the sensed location of the rearlane.

The urban air mobility may initiate the charging by receiving thewireless power from the supply device after being in communicationconnection with the supply device based on the completion of thelongitudinal alignment control. In this regard, the urban air mobilitymay receive information about an intensity of initially transmittedpower from the supply device via the inband or out-of-bandcommunication.

The charging device of the urban air mobility according to an embodimentmay calculate the wireless charging efficiency based on the intensity ofthe received power and the intensity of the initially transmitted poweracquired from the supply device. In addition, the urban air mobility mayanalyze the beam pattern for the wireless power received via thewireless power receiving pad.

The urban air mobility according to an embodiment may transmit theinformation about the calculated charging efficiency and the informationabout the analyzed beam pattern to the pre-paired user device.

The user may determine a fine alignment direction of the urban airmobility based on the charging efficiency and the beam pattern displayedon the user device, and may finely adjust the location of the urban airmobility using a direction control button—for example, afront/rear/left/right button—equipped on the smart key. The finealignment using the smart key may be repeatedly performed until thewireless charging efficiency reaches the preset reference value.

The urban air mobility according to an embodiment may acquire thecurrent location information—that is, the GPS coordinateinformation—thereof based on the signal received via the equipped GPSreceiver, and may receive the location information of the supplydevice—for example, the GPS coordinate information of the supplydevice—via the wireless communication. In this case, the urban airmobility may move to the supply device by performing the autonomousdriving based on the current location information thereof and thelocation information of the supply device. The urban air mobility maymove to the supply device, and when the primary alignment between thewireless power transmitting/receiving pads is completed, calculate thewireless charging efficiency and analyze the beam pattern as describedabove. The urban air mobility may autonomously drive until thecalculated wireless charging efficiency reaches the predeterminedreference value to perform the secondary alignment between the wirelesspower transmitting/receiving pads. The urban air mobility may initiatethe charging of the equipped battery using the received wireless powerwhen the secondary alignment is completed.

The urban air mobility according to an embodiment may determine the typeof sensor for the in-place alignment of the wireless powertransmitting/receiving pads adaptively based on the driven states of theequipped sensors. For example, when a driven state of the camera is notnormal, the urban air mobility may use the GPS receiver. As anotherexample, when a driven state of the GPS receiver is not normal, theurban air mobility may use the camera. As another example, when both thedriven states of the GPS receiver and the camera are not normal, theurban air mobility may use the ultrasonic sensor. In one example, theurban air mobility may perform the in-place alignment of the wirelesspower transmitting/receiving pads by fusing the plurality of sensorswith each other based on the driven states of the sensors. For example,as the more precise location information is acquired by fusing at leasttwo of the camera, the GPS receiver, and the ultrasonic sensor with eachother, the in-place alignment of the wireless powertransmitting/receiving pads may be performed.

In the above embodiment, the description was made with the example inwhich the types of sensors and receiver mounted on the urban airmobility are the camera, the GPS receiver, and the ultrasonic sensor,but this is only one embodiment. Another embodiment may further includeat least one of the LiDAR, the radar, and the inertial measurementsensor.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for illustrating an in-place alignment method forwireless charging of an urban air mobility capable of vertical take-offand landing according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 12 , the urban air mobility 1000 capable of thevertical take-off and the landing may make a request for a chargingrequest signal containing the location information thereof during theflight to the UAM control center 1093, and acquire location informationof an available vertiport 1110 from the UAM control center 1093. The UAMcontrol center 1093 may identify the available optimal supply device 10corresponding to the current location of the urban air mobility 1000,and provide the vertiport location information corresponding to theidentified supply device 10 to the urban air mobility 1000.

The urban air mobility 1000 may move to the vertiport 1110 by performingautonomous flight based on the location information of the vertiport1110.

The urban air mobility 1000 may identify a location of a wireless powertransmitting pad 1112 disposed at one side of the vertiport 1110 byanalyzing the equipped lower camera image when the movement to thevertiport 1110 is completed.

The urban air mobility 1000 may control an equipped wireless powerreceiving pad 1130 and the wireless power transmitting pad 1112 to bealigned with each other in the horizontal direction based on theidentified location of the wireless power transmitting pad 1112. In thisregard, the horizontal alignment may be performed in the flight state.

The urban air mobility 1000 may maintain a distance between the wirelesspower receiving pad 1130 and the wireless power transmitting pad 1112 tobe equal to or smaller than the first distance by performing the primaryvertical alignment when the horizontal alignment is completed.

The urban air mobility 1000 may terminate the flight based on thedistance between the wireless power receiving pad 1130 and the wirelesspower transmitting pad 1112 becoming equal to or smaller than the firstdistance, and may be in communication connection with the supply device10 to initiate the low-power charging.

The urban air mobility 1000 may calculate the wireless chargingefficiency during the low-power charging. The urban air mobility 1000may perform the secondary vertical alignment within a preset limitdistance until the calculated wireless charging efficiency reaches thepredetermined reference value.

When the secondary vertical alignment is completed, the urban airmobility 1000 may initiate the high-power charging to charge thebattery.

The secondary vertical alignment according to an embodiment may controlthe wireless power receiving pad 1130 and/or the wireless powertransmitting pad 1112 to move in the vertical direction via a drivingmotor thereof.

Steps in a method or algorithm described in relation to the embodimentsdisclosed herein may be directly implemented in hardware, a softwaremodule, or a combination of the two, executed by a processor. Thesoftware module may reside in a storage medium (i.e., a memory and/orstorage) such as a RAM, a flash memory, a ROM, an EPROM, an EEPROM, aregisters, a hard disk, a removable disk, or a CD-ROM.

An exemplary storage medium may be coupled to the processor, theprocessor may read information from, and write information to, thestorage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be integrated withthe processor. The processor and storage medium may reside within anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The ASIC may residewithin the user terminal. Alternatively, the processor and storagemedium may reside as separate components within the user terminal.

The above description is merely illustrative of the technical spirit ofthe present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the artthat various modifications and variations can be made in the presentdisclosure without departing from the spirit and scope of thedisclosure.

Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present disclosure aremerely illustrative of the technical spirit of the present disclosure.The scope of the technical spirit of the present disclosure is notlimited by these embodiments. The scope of the present disclosure shouldbe construed by the appended claims, and all technical ideas within thescope equivalent thereto should be construed as being within the scopeof the present disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A wireless charging method in an urban air mobility, the method comprising: acquiring location information of a supply device for supplying wireless power; moving the urban air mobility to the supply device based on the location information; performing a horizontal alignment based on a distance to the supply device; performing a longitudinal alignment based on completion of the horizontal alignment; and performing the wireless charging after the urban air mobility stops based on completion of the longitudinal alignment.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: analyzing a front camera image to sense a front lane of the supply device; and calculating the distance to the supply device based on the sensed front lane.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: analyzing the front camera image to sense left and right lanes of the supply device, wherein the horizontal alignment is performed based on distances to the sensed left and right lanes.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: analyzing a rear camera image to sense a rear lane, wherein the longitudinal alignment is performed based on the sensed rear lane.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: calculating a wireless charging efficiency during the wireless charging; and performing a fine alignment between a wireless power transmitting pad mounted on the supply device and a wireless power receiving pad mounted on the urban air mobility based on the calculated wireless charging efficiency.
 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: completing the fine alignment based on the wireless charging efficiency exceeding a predetermined reference value; and performing a battery charging based on completion of the fine alignment.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein first-power is received from the supply device during the fine alignment and second-power is received from the supply device when the fine alignment is completed, wherein the second-power is greater than the first-power.
 8. The method of claim 5, further comprising: analyzing a beam pattern based on the wireless power received from the supply device during the wireless charging, wherein the fine alignment is performed based on the analyzed beam pattern.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the horizontal alignment is performed based on the distance to the supply device becoming equal to or smaller than a first distance, and the longitudinal alignment is performed based on the distance to the supply device equal to or smaller than a second distance, wherein the first distance is greater than the second distance.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information of the supply device is received from the supply device or an urban air mobility control center for managing the supply device via a wireless communication in response to a charging request of the urban air mobility, wherein the location information is GPS coordinate information.
 11. A non-volatile computer readable storage medium for storing at least one computer program including an instruction that, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform wireless charging operations in an urban air mobility in association with a supply device via wireless communication, wherein the wireless charging operations comprising: acquiring location information of the supply device for supplying wireless power; moving the urban air mobility to the supply device based on the location information; performing a horizontal alignment based on a distance to the supply device; performing a longitudinal alignment based on completion of the horizontal alignment; and performing the wireless charging after the urban air mobility stops based on completion of the longitudinal alignment.
 12. An urban air mobility equipped with a wireless charging function, the urban air mobility comprising: a sensor; a communication terminal for performing communication with an external device; an electronic control unit for controlling operation and movement of the urban air mobility; a rechargeable battery; a charging device for converting power received via a wireless power receiving pad to charge the battery; and a vehicle control unit for controlling the sensor, the communication terminal, and the charging device, wherein the vehicle control unit is configured to: acquire location information of a supply device for supplying wireless power via the communication terminal; control the electronic control unit based on the location information to move the urban air mobility to the supply device; sequentially perform a horizontal alignment and a longitudinal alignment based on a distance to the supply device; and control the charging device after the urban air mobility stops based on completion of the longitudinal alignment to perform the wireless charging.
 13. The urban air mobility of claim 12, wherein the sensor includes a front camera, wherein the vehicle control unit is configured to: analyze an image of the front camera to sense a front lane of the supply device; and calculate the distance to the supply device based on the sensed front lane.
 14. The urban air mobility of claim 13, wherein the vehicle control unit is configured to: analyze the image of the front camera to sense left and right lanes of the supply device; and perform the horizontal alignment based on distances to the sensed left and right lanes.
 15. The urban air mobility of claim 14, wherein the sensor includes a rear camera, wherein the vehicle control unit is configured to: analyze an image of the rear camera to sense a rear lane; and perform the longitudinal alignment based on the sensed rear lane.
 16. The urban air mobility of claim 12, wherein the vehicle control unit is configured to: calculate a wireless charging efficiency during the wireless charging; and perform a fine alignment between a wireless power transmitting pad mounted on the supply device and a wireless power receiving pad mounted on the urban air mobility based on the calculated wireless charging efficiency.
 17. The urban air mobility of claim 16, wherein the vehicle control unit is configured to determine that the fine alignment is completed based on the wireless charging efficiency exceeding a predetermined reference value, wherein charging of the battery is performed based on completion of the fine alignment.
 18. The urban air mobility of claim 17, wherein first-power is received from the supply device during the fine alignment and second-power is received from the supply device when the fine alignment is completed, wherein the second-power is greater than the first-power.
 19. The urban air mobility of claim 16, wherein the vehicle control unit is configured to analyze a beam pattern based on the wireless power received from the supply device during the wireless charging, wherein the fine alignment is performed based on the analyzed beam pattern.
 20. The urban air mobility of claim 12, wherein the vehicle control unit is configured to perform the horizontal alignment based on the distance to the supply device becoming equal to or smaller than a first distance, and to perform the longitudinal alignment based on the distance to the supply device equal to or smaller than a second distance, wherein the first distance is greater than the second distance, and wherein the location information of the supply device is received from the supply device or an urban air mobility control center for managing the supply device via wireless communication in response to a charging request of the urban air mobility, wherein the location information is GPS coordinate information. 